Women in the Walls was/is a mural project where most of the painting was done on the last weekend in August. Twenty women participated to create murals in the alley behind the north side of Gerrard Street East near Craven, Rhodes and Woodfield. One van and one car were also painted.

below: Courtney Binns and Kerry Marie (kairo) work on their murals.

below: Princess Nokia

below: Caitlin Taguiboa paints her mural starting with the black and white background that will turn into ripples and reflections on water.

below: Kim adds some blue to the background of her mural.

below: The deer mural was preserved (it’s been on this wall for a number of years). You can just see the faint outlines of a salamander that @mmnador is creating. That’s Kim working on her pilots (astronauts?) in the background.

below: Rolling on the pink, background that is. Anya Mielniczek’s latest mural is a woman’s face in shades of pink and green.

below: Painting a tribute to Smokey the cat, by Stacey Kinder.

below: Up close to the central portion of a mural painted by Chief Ladybird and Auralast.

below: The words in the stripes are “One Voice”. There is a blue and a pink stripe that didn’t make it into the photo, on them is written “Powerful”.

below: A shout out to Debbie who lent her car, Lightning, to the cause. Here, a black stenciled dog adorns the back door panel – in memory of Harley.

below: Lightning is now fueled with flower power!

below: And the last, a van. It was parked behind the Flying Pony while one side was painted by Erika James….

below: … and the other by Jieun June Kim. When I went back later in the week to take pictures of the completed murals, the van wasn’t around. If you see it, let me know!

below: Hands and stylized florals

This project was supported by StART program at StreetARToronto as well as Cultural Hotspot 2017. The latter is a summer-long initiative whose aim is to encourage art, community, and culture in the east end of the city.

below: Monstawall by Monica Wickeler (aka monicaonthemoon), one of the principal organizers of the weekend.

Close to Kensington market is a small park called Sonya Parkette. Two of the sides of the park are walls. A few years ago the walls were painted with historical murals that were subsequently tagged over. More recently, the park has undergone some renovations including new murals on the walls.

Many of the murals are by P.S (aka Phillip Saunders). If you are familiar with some of the graffiti and street art in the Kensington area, you will recognize the style.

below: This mural, and the one below, are obviously by the same artist who painted the two murals of naked women in Milky Way.

below: A realistic painting of a sleeping man.

below: Peace and an abstract.

The Kensington area has a problem with taggers – many street art pieces get vandalized. Let’s hope that these don’t suffer that fate.

Today I walked the southern part of the Lower Don River trail. It’s not the most relaxing place to walk even though the path follows the river. I have a habit of absentmindedly meandering and I didn’t want to meander right into a cyclist on the narrow shared path. There was constant background noise from the cars and trucks on the nearby Don Valley Parkway but it was the GO trains that made the most noise as they rumbled right beside me. Yes, you are correct, it’s not my favorite place to walk. But I also knew that there was a reward near the end of the trail.

Near the ‘mouth of the Don River’ (in reality, where the Don River turns into the Keating Channel), there are some new murals on the bents supporting the ramps between the DVP and the Gardiner Expressway. They are part of the Love Letter to the Great Lakes project. A previous blog post, love letters in paint, concerned the murals from this project that were painted near Ossington and Queen West.

below: If you approach the area from the north, this is the first bent that you see. All sides of it have been painted by Kirsten McCrea. If you are driving south on the Don Valley Parkway and you exit to the Gardiner westbound, you drive right over this, and the next few, bents. In case you haven’t guessed, a bent is that concrete support thingy holding up the road.

below: The other side of the McCrea mural is in the background, behind the bent that has been painted by PA System (Patrick Thompson and Alexa Hatanaka). Amongst the swirly watery shapes there is a face near the top. Extra bit: The guy on the bike stopped to take a photo too.

below: The other side of the PA System bent. A large fish fits perfectly in the upper portion while a hand reaches up from the vertical part.

below: The other side of the above bent. It looks like the woman has come through the pillar.

below: A woman with a mouse in her hand and a flower in her hair kneels beside the foxes,
a mural painted by EGR (Erica Balon). In the background you can see a much taller bent that has been painted blue. This bent is on a different ramp, the ramp that you would find yourself on if you were driving east on the Gardiner and then exiting to the DVP. It has been painted by Jason Botkin and it includes the word Wonscotanach. Apparently that was the First Nations name for the river before John Graves Simcoe came along in 1790 and decided to call it the Don River.

below: There are more animals on the other sides, along with a city lit up in the night in the background of the mural. Raccoon, rabbit and a pink butterfly fluttering past.

below: Rajni Perera‘s mural features red and yellow women walking or standing in the water.

below: Looking back

below: A collaborative effort by Jarus and Kwest beside the Don Valley trail, just north of the other murals.

below: And one last photo before leaving the area… a quick note sprayed on a concrete support.